I'm a Mia Maid and I'm taking on a project to finish my
personal
progress with. Another young woman and I decided to keep up with
the YW bulletin board and we need ideas. We would like to keep it
church centered but also exciting and fun. I need suggestions, can
anyone help me?

The first YW meeting of each month
we call "P-Day" - We meet as classes (Laurels, Mia Maids, Beehives) to
to through the PP book - and to encourage
each other to chose one specific thing to work on in the month to come.
We do NOT work on any requirement, that is for the girl to do by
herself
- just
keep the focus on what they COULD do & encourage, encourage,
encourage.
To make it fun (I hope) we have to wear something that starts with the
letter "P"
(pink, purple, plaid, polka dots, etc) and the refreshments have to
start with the letter "P" also (popcorn, punch, pizza - which is on the
girls' list but we have NOT had it as yet! - peanuts, popsicles, etc.)
Then the next month we ask for a report on their "personal progress" in
what they chose to do the previous month.

Hi , i am currently
serving
as 1st counselor at the Scunthorpe ward in England. My president and
myself
were wondering exactly how does this new personal progress actually
work
. Our YW are lost also as they do not know what happens to all their
efforts
in the old book. If anyone could with your ideas about how to run the
PP
correctly and spiritually. This would be greatly appreciated. e
mail here
8/9/02thank you very much.

Sis C A Fell - England

I am a Mia Maid Leader and
have a girl who has a specific learning disability, especially when it
comes to reading/comprehension. I was wondering if there was
anywhere
documented of modifications that we can make to the personal progress
program
to help ease the pain of this overwhelming burden for her. She
can
not make her way through this program and be successful. Can
anyone
lead me in the direction or give me a reference as to where this is
listed
on the web. I am also a Special Ed teacher and know what
frustration
her and her parents are going through. E
mail here
7/24/02Thank you.

Sis. D. - Mesa,
AZ

Like all of you we give
out incentives for personl progress. Always a challenge to come
up
with something new for each year, but we decided to do hearts this
year.
They are made of wood and are about an inch in diameter and make of 3/4
inch pine. The four on the bottom are upside down (with the value
written so you can read it) and the 3 on the top are right side
up.
We give them to the girls as they earn them. They have liked them.Try my new personal
progress tracking form that might help some YW leaders in tracking
each girl individually. The document is in Microsoft Word format
only. -- L
MooreThis year for our gift to
encourage personal progress we gave each of the girls a baby
shoe(payless
shoes) Each time they passed off a value they got the color of that
value
as a shoelace to tie on their shoes. For Faith we just used the
shoelace
and then tied a card with the theme on it. They turned out so
cute
. With the theme being "Stand as a Witness" again this year you might
want
to try this.
N.Bennett - South Jordan UtahOne of the Personal
Progress
goals for Mia Maid 1 in Divine Nature is to increase your appreciation
for motherhood. I had a mini lesson prepared on the joys of
motherhood
and than we had a Motherhood Obstacle Course. All the girls were
to wear a bathrobe and slippers. The race started with putting a
curler in their hair. The course was as follows: changing a baby doll
in
diapers, picking up trash on the floor, hanging clothes on a line,
making
"dinner", and setting a table. The event was timed and the winner
was crowned along with a sash and a bouquet of wooden spoons and paper
flowers. The girls loved it!We visited a young woman
in our ward who is inactive and brought along toppings for ice cream
sundaes
which really helped the girls to break the ice and get to know each
other
better. One of the girls goals was to invite someone to church or
church activity - what a great opportunity and they did it!An activity that the girls
loved for completing goals was the honey hunt. It was a program,
I got the idea twelve years ago when I was YW President. It was a
stake brainstorm. Basically, the girls received a teddy bear and
with each goal they were awarded something for the bear. For
completing
all of the Good Works goals they recieved a backpack. Knowledge
they
received glasses because they were "beary knowledgable'. and so
on...
It started with a story about a boy who went to the hospital and took
an
old worn teddy with him the boy had surgery for his eyes and when
the ordeal was over he could see and he left his teddy there with the
doctors.
The program is wonderfulTo help the young women
accomplish their goals we announce an incentive at the beginning of the
year. Such as a temple bag, a Christus, a plaque, etc. These are given
to the girls, who complete their goals, at the end of the year. We also
spotlight a group goal each month. This is just one of the goals listed
in the Personal Progress book. We work on it as a group so the girls
can
remind and encourage each other. The previous presidency started this
in
our ward and it has worked out great. If you have questions about thisWe are a new
presidency
and we decided we wanted to make personal progress one of our
priorities
(one of many!) and so we devised a couple of things that we are going
to
use starting in January and I wanted to share them. First we are
having someone called especially for personal progress. She will
keep up with all the paperwork and reminding the girls, but we didn't
want
it to become nagging kind of thing. She will keep a form (one for
each girl). On the left hand side of the form is listed the girls
birthday and what year in YW she is in. Along the top are slots
for
receiving her personal progress book, the values, laurel projects,
interviews
with the bishopric and bishop, camp certification, age-group
recognition,
and anything else you want to keep track of! Then we are giving
each
girl a packet that we will ask them to keep with their personal
progress
book (it only has a few pages) it is broken into 6 with a space in each
one to list the goal they are working on and how they are going to
accomplish
it, and the date it will be done. Once every three months the
personal
progress counselor will meet with the girls (probably at her house) and
see how it's going. Once during that three month period she hands
them a slip of paper (the color of the value they are working on)
reminding
them of the value they have chosen and the date it is to be finished
and
an offer to help if it is needed. At the end of each three month
period we will be giving out incentives during Young Women. We
have
decided to make wooden hearts with a stem (like a flower) with the
value
written on it, this year. When the YW is finished with the goal
she
will receive the heart in YW opening exercises. She will have a
bouquet
by the end of the year!In our ward, each Fast
Sunday
a member of the YW presidency gives the lesson to the combined group of
Young Women. Our president selects the lesson schedule and we
teach
the lesson for that week and it fits into our value area of focus for
the
month. Sometime during the lesson, we hand out pencil and a 3x5
card
and ask the girls to write down a goal that they can work on during the
next month in that value. Then we gather them up and put them in
their file and when we interview them, we ask them about their goal
cards.
We have the young women bring their personal progress books to church
on
that Sunday. Another thing I did just recently was go through my past
calenders
of ward and stake activities, firesides, etc., hand in hand with the
personal
progress book and was amazed at how many of our activities that the
young
women had planned fit right into many of the goals. They had been
working on personal progress all year long and didn't even realize it
because
they were already choosing to do good things.

J. Cheney -
Boise,
Idaho

I have only worked in
Young
Women's for five months. My Mia Maid girls were really struggling
with Personal Progress. Our class president has assigned one of
her
counselors over Personal Progress. This young women is in charge
of making sure that we do one goal a month. It is nice because
then
the girls can organize the activities and get their Personal Progress
at
the same time.F. Fallis - Lake
Havasu
City, AZI heard a great idea at
our Stake meeting last night. One presidency in our Stake has a
personal
progress moment each Sunday during opening exercises. Each of the
yw take turns telling about a goal they just passed off or one that
they
are working on. Only one yw does it each week and they are
reminded
by their class president during the week when it is going to be their
turn.
This keeps the girls working on their goals a little better because no
one wants to get up and say, "I haven't done anything" .S. Glenn -
American
Canyon, CAWe just did a Personal
Progress
Pajama Party. The girls arrived in their PJS (which stood for
prayer,
journals, and scriptures), ate pizza, potato salad, pies, peanut butter
cookies and pretzels and potato chips.(Everything started with a
P.)
Then we had a Pajama Parade, exchanged white elephants, had talks on
prayer,
journals and scriptures - these are three things you should never go to
bed without. Then we had workshops on photography, scrapbooking
and
scripture reading where we could pass off things in our personal
progress
books. After that we had a "family prayer" and partied for the
rest
of the night. The girls are still talking about it.J. Guymon Our ward chooses one
activity night a quarter to spend on reviewing and checking off
personal
progress goals that the girls are working on or goals they have
completed.
One leader from each group (Laurel, Mia Maid, Beehive) sits at a
table.
The YW are divided into two groups, one group of works on
personal
progress and visits with the appropriate leader. The other group
makes something in the kitchen or works on a craft to be delivered to
someone
in the ward that night after everyone has been through the "personal
progress
tables". The girls don't seem to mind working on personal
progress
this way.This activity fulfilled Divine
Nature
in family relationships. I separated the girls into groups (of two or
four)
and gave each group a grab bag filled with typical family belongings.
After
a few minutes of preparation, I had the girls act out a skit that
showed
how to improve family relationships. Then each group wrote down the
greatest
number of ways to improve their family relationships. Then
individually,
they wrote down five specific goals for improving their own family
relationships.
Then I had them choose the most important one to work on first. Then I
gave each of the girls some stationery and had each of them write a
letter
to their mothers telling her the qualities she admires in her. In the
letter,
each girl asked her mother to help her develop one of these qualities.
Then they each got an envelope to decorate (girls love to do that, you
know) and then they delivered the letters when they went home. It helps
fulfill Beehive 1, Divine Nature #6; Mia Maid 2, Divine Nature #1; See
Beehive 2, DN #5, #6, #7, and #8; Mia Maid 1, DN #3 and #5; Mia Maid 2,
DN #7 and #8. Darlene Agren
- Gunnison, Utah
Each month our Personal Progress leader encourages the girls to
work on their goals each week. At the end of the month (the last
Sunday)
she rewards each girl that has accomplished her two goals for the month
with a rose made of candy kisses (and also two wrapped in plastic). The
rose is the color of the value focused on that month. The idea is for
the
girls to keep these at home and create a beautiful boquet. The girls
really
are excited about the roses each month. Dena Schmidt
- Loomis, California
We did a sleep over where we just worked on personal project
goals!!
Our girls had a great time and each got at least 2 of their goals
signed
off that night. Also we as a YW Presidency are working on getting
our medallions! The girls love to work with us, and get a real boost
when
they see us achieve our medallions too!! Jeanie Morris
- Baraboo, Wisconsin
I was just released as the MiaMaid counselor and had lots of
tears.
Fortunately, I was called to be over Personal Progress. There are
a mountain of ideas out there. Like many of you, we introduce the
value of the month on every fast Sunday. I begin by telling a
captivating
story, relating it to the theme and then passing out a handout that
goes
along with it. The handout is a message and a tangible item that
will hopefully make them remember the story and then the value or both
at once. Pixie sticks represent Pungie sticks soaked in human
urine,
representing choices. (You'd have to hear the story.) Every
girl was listening. I like to stay away from food on fast Sunday,
but I wanted them to make the connection this time. I've also had
fun dropping off treats and notes at their homes to be found when they
get home from school. A "Do"Nut can say whatever you want. Do Not
Forgets are the best. Try Gummie Bears with "We are 'beary'
proud"
of your goals achieved in Personal Progress. Donna McMurry
- Allen, Texas
Focus monthly class activities on accomplishing one goal. There
will still be goals for the YW to make on an individula basis, but
working
with the class will motivate them to work alone, as well as encourage
one
another.
To help our girls with their Personal Progress, we had a "Round
Robin"
night where we chose 3 different values that could be done in one night
and gave each girl 20 mins in each value class. Some of them were able
to sign off 3 that night. It was a real boost for them. Paula Hunt - Placentia,
California
Personal Progress Night: Have a "P" night. Make invitations in
shape of a "P" -- in a color beginning with a p. Wear pajamas or
something
beginning with a P... and bring a pillow. All food is to begin with a
P,
etc. Use as many things as possible with "P" to work on PP (Personal
Progress). Carol Hatch - Salt Lake
City, Utah
For Personal Progress we have Personal Progress Pigouts when
ever
there is a fifth activity night! You bring junk food and your Personal
Progress Book--you pig out on food for both the body and the spirit!! Jeanette
Tolman
- Beavercreek, Ohio